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Thanks App. I normally prefer editing my xml pad files by hand, but figuring out the program category official names are a pain, and these pad creation programs can really help.

Let's make a nice list of the top places to submit files. I'll post my favorite places soon.

Note: You really need to have a proper little permanent web page for your program if you are going to create a pad file and submit it, rather than simply attaching it to a forum thread.

We are absolutely more than happy to provide permanent web space at http://YOURCHOICE.dcmembers.com for anyone who has freeware or donationware programs they want to put up, just send me a message.

[You are welcome to put google ads or whatever on the page - you don't have to credit us or anything - we just ask that you not break any laws with the space or host anything else that would end up causing massive traffic.]

There are other places to get free web hosting as well if you like, perhaps people can share their favorite places.

I'm hip to PadGen and have my own site. After looking around here I see a place for quick hacks, which I love(my first AutoHotKey script is for Vista and just waits for Control-Enter hotkey to open Explorer selections in another window like XP.) I'm curious how I could contribute some little hacks of my own. I toyed with my own licensing code when I first opened my page but after awhile it was just a pain so I enabled all my software for free download. So I guess anything that's already out of the bag doesn't fit the license key paradigm? Or where do I find out more details?

I'm a newbie and took a quick look around but maybe I missed something right in front of me. Happens a lot.

What engine do you use for software license keys? What's your opinion on providing feature limited software for free, but asking for donations to unlock full functionality? I'm not currently using any licensing mechanisms for my software, but am interested in maybe going that route in the future.

I do follow since several years both the DonationCoder environment and the Zero Install project. Call me a shameless connector or whatever bad word you can think of, I don't mind, but I want to say I'm confident that some kind of partnership, in a direction or the other, would really benefit both. Zero Install works on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX. Awesome would be if every piece of software, coming from DC developers, even the most little one, could be packaged providing a "Zero Install feed"; dreaming a bit, but not that much, that would also make flowless and easier to accomplish an interoperability between various DC apps (see how ZI manages dependencies), and the software index would include all the DonationCoder apps, so they would be easier to find and explore (and immediately run! Thinking forward, a donation system in DC style could eventually be integrated in the service and/or the project itself. With Zero Install would be very easy for users e.g. to try DC apps (easy as clicking a "Launch!" button), eventually fall in love with them, and donate for a lifetime unlock.

Really, I see a lot of potential here for both the ecosystems, and I could write a lot about that - but I'll let you use your own imagination while here and now I'll just prefer begging to stop for a moment, and take a serious look to the Zero Install project for the possibilities that your contributions would bring; what I'm asking here is to make your tiny/little/big/huge/whatever apps available as Zero Install feeds (if they work on the supported platforms); of course you can continue using your usual way of packaging and distributing stuff, but I'm asking to make a Zero Install version *too* - it's easy and well explained:http://0install.net/injector-packagers.html

If you want to explore the possibility, please join the mailing list that is the main place for discussions; also for any trouble in making the feeds, there will be always someone capable and willing to help there:http://0install.net/support.html

A pad filew is a file which describes a program. It is hosted on your site, and you may submit its URL to sites which collect such files. Then, software listing sites download your pad file and use it to list your software on their site.

I'm no longer so enthusiastic about using them. Every time I update my program, help and readme files, I also have to update the pad file and upload that. The new utilities I write now I don't bother. The bots can read the apps off my site if they want to make them available for download.

If you have a program that's actually selling then it may be worth the trouble.

A pad filew is a file which describes a program. It is hosted on your site, and you may submit its URL to sites which collect such files. Then, software listing sites download your pad file and use it to list your software on their site.

cool.. I wanna learn more about that .. thanks I'll try to work on one

I am selling my applications (shameless plug: Ron's Place Apps), and I use Inno Setup for the install files, which I host on my own website. The whole site and domain don't cost much more than 100 euros per year, so not a deal breaker.

For the PAD files, I made a base template from a few downloaded examples (I forget where from but they are easy to find), then populate changing fields with tokens like '<%ProductName%>'. At build time I can then generate the pad file for each product automatically, from generated meta data and a csv file containing product specific information. Of course I validated the first few runs but now it just works.

There is a little up-front time investment, but I have gained that back 10 times over. Of course the technology used will depend on the individual, and there quite a few details to think through but it has been worth it to me.